Best bet for Pro Bowl? Quick death

Little interest in event, but revenue keeps it going

January 29, 2010

Congratulations to the NFL for devising a scheme that finally has somebody talking about the Pro Bowl. It's all negative, but hey, pro football is bulletproof.

So what if Commissioner Roger Goodell dropped the ball here more times than a Minnesota Viking in a meaningful game. The flap over the game being moved up to the Sunday prior to the Super Bowl, precluding the participation of 14 Colts and Saints, might lead to the best thing ever to happen to the game -- its death.

It's time for the usually public relations-savvy NFL to take the event off of life support and craft the epitaph. Nobody wants to see it. Even most gamblers turn away, although I am taking a flyer on the over at 56.5, even with the Jaguars' David Garrard slinging it.

Many of the players selected, particularly those who have had the experience, don't want to play. That includes Super Bowl participants, so spare me the rhetoric over injustices to the Saints and Colts.

Brian Urlacher (remember when he was a Pro Bowl linebacker?) took a pass on another trip to Honolulu after the Bears lost to Indianapolis three years ago. His father was ill; Urlacher chose dad. After training camp, a regular season and three physical playoff games, Urlacher could have said his dog needed shots and smart people happily wouldn't have questioned it.

Chargers defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, on the AFC staff, couldn't mask his indifference when he called this week while waiting for a connecting flight to south Florida.

Coaches only know how to prepare for Sundays one way -- with undivided attention and meticulous preparation. Tennis and golf are more reasonable recreational activities than tackle football.

And even flag football on Waikiki Beach has been a disaster, senselessly truncating the career of Patriots running back Robert Edwards. After rushing for more than 1,100 yards as a rookie in 1998, Edwards shredded his knee in a flag football game at the Pro Bowl. The trauma was so bad, doctors mulled amputation. Edwards attempted a comeback with the Dolphins in 2002, but his NFL life was a short one.

All so we can listen to Chris Berman shout at us.

The only redeeming quality of this game is revenue. That's why this or any other petitions for its abolition are likely as pointless as the game itself.

There isn't a league on firmer financial ground than the NFL. The Red Zone Channel is coming to your cell phone. Housewives play fantasy football. People crave the product. And even with the potential for a work stoppage in 2011 and a few empty stadia, I'd wager, with handsome odds, that the NFL widens its already-huge gap in popularity over MLB, the NBA and the NHL over the next decade.

As a guy who loves the NFL, I'm grateful to Goodell and his wingmen for putting the Pro Bowl into our consciousness. Only so the league wakes up and recognizes the stupidity of the nonsense. And terminates it -- before one of the game's most prized assets gets his femur snapped.

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Dan McNeil is the host of "The Danny Mac Show," weekdays 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on WSCR-AM 670.